Friday’s Farm Fotos

Here we are, another week come and gone. And since, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Art is long, and time is fleeting,” I guess it’s time to display some pictures (as close as I can come to art) from this past week of time down on the farm!

Actually, it’s rather fowl around here these days. There are two groups of guineas running around with keets. The older group that started out with a couple dozen are now down to 9 half-grown keets.

The second group fared even worse. They started out with 18 keets and now have 4. Of course, the first group has 7 adults watching over their 9 keets, whereas the second group only has 2 adults looking after their 4 little ones.

Our Mama Peahen seems to be doing okay with her little peachicks. Although I believe they think their mission in life is to give their mother a nervous breakdown. (Hmmmm, sounds a lot like human kids, huh?) They’re small enough to get through the fencing at the bottom of the aviary, and run around outside in the grass while the mother paces back and forth inside calling to them. They ignore her until they’re good and ready to hop back over the bottom board and follow Mom around. Like I said. reminds me of human kids!

Notice the cardinal in there with them? I throw sunflower seeds on the ground for the peafowl, and the cardinals often come and help themselves. We do seem to have a tendency to feed the wildlife around here, intentional or not!

We have the 4 surviving peachicks from the 10 that hatched in the incubators outside in their own pen for now. I think one of them is going to be a peacock, which is good. I only have one male peafowl right now, and he’s getting old.

This youngster fans those feathers and displays every time I give them fresh food and water. He also has a propensity for pecking at me. I hope that goes away!

Not all the hummingbirds have departed for points further south yet. There’s at least 3 of them out there still fussing at each other. They’re so territorial!

I like this picture because you can see her little tongue sticking out! Ummm, that was good stuff!

The butterflies are enjoying the last days of summer also. We still have several flitting around the butterfly bushes, enjoying the nectar.

It’s hard to get pictures of them sometimes, because like the hummingbirds, they don’t stay still very long!

Before you know it, they’re in flight again, and it’s hard to focus in and get a good shot!

Close by one of the butterfly bushes there’s another garden spider on the hunt. This one has had HUGE success, having caught a cicada in her web.

Wow! If you take into account her long legs, her prey is actually bigger than she is! That ought to keep her pantry full for some time!

We're living the country life and hobby farming in the southeastern U.S. We've become a bit of a retirement home, with one ewe sheep, a female goat, and a pet llama that are getting "up there" in years.

We also have chickens, turkeys and guinea fowl. To keep all the other critters safe, there's a Maremma sheepdog here as well!

I love to take pictures so there are lots of images to go with the stories! Not just of the farm critters, but wildlife and nature shots too. Plus some pictures from far afield now and then, when we do a tad of traveling. So sit down and visit a spell!